Tesla CEO
Elon Musk and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman recently traded jabs online, accusing each other over their past relationships with Jeffrey Epstein. Both business tycoons claimed the other had potential criminal conduct tied to associations with the late child sex offender.
Both Musk and Hoffman have been featured in the latest release of Epstein files by the Department of Justice, revealing new angles into their relations with Epstein. On Friday, the X owner took to his social media platform calling for Hoffman to be "investigated" over his ties to the disgraced financier.
Hoffman fired back in a post claiming the FBI had already "cleared" him of any connections, but Musk on the other hand was yet to be investigated. "The FBI cleared me. You on the other hand…" he wrote.
Musk, who is known for not taking threats lightly launched into a blistering attack against the tech billionaire, calling him a "liar" and pointing out that Hoffman visited Epstein's island, his ranch in New Mexico and his house in New York about three times, which could not be a "mistake."
“Liar, you are guilty of dark deeds and haven’t been cleared of anything. You stayed at Epstein’s island, Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico and Epstein’s house in New York. You offered to help him with PR. You gave him gifts,” Musk wrote in a social media post on X late Friday night.
“Maybe if it was only one stay over, you could claim it was a mistake. Maybe. But there is NO possible explanation for the second time, let alone the third time. As the record shows, you were an eager repeat customer.”
The origins of the tussle go back to Tuesday when Musk accused Hoffman of having visited Epstein's private island. “The big difference between you and me, Reid, is that you went and I did not. In fact, you went multiple times,” he wrote in an X post, rejecting any comparison between their associations with Epstein.
“And, as the email shows, I obviously didn’t anticipate anything actually shady, as I was bringing my wife at the time (Talulah). Nonetheless, UNLIKE YOU, I came to my senses and declined to go. Epstein tried to get me to go to his island so many times that eventually I just blocked him,” Musk said in a follow-up post.
However, as per Hoffman, his encounters with Epstein were for institutional funding rather than personal ties. He said his visits were made in an effort to raise money for the MIT Media Lab, which he was working on alongside the lab's former director Joi Ito.
Musk, who previously claimed that Epstein "tried repeatedly" to get him to visit his private island, was actually revealed to have asked for an invitation to Little Saint James himself. In a 2012 email sent to Epstein, he asked which night would be "the wildest party on your island" while noting that he would likely be accompanied by his then-wife, Talulah Riley. However, it remains unclear if Musk followed through on the attendance.
As for Hoffman, the billionaire venture capitalist's account of his ties with Epstein was also contradicted by the new documents. In 2019, he told the Axios publication that his last contact with Epstein was in 2015, but later acknowledged meeting him at least six times after that, including three in-person encounters. However, he had not been cleared by the FBI in any investigation over Epstein files. Trump did order a probe into the ties of many Democrats with the late criminal in 2025 but the results of the same are yet to be made public, if investigated.
The two have frequently engaged in an online tussle previously. In March 2025, Musk accused Hoffman of funding protests against Tesla, which the billionaire denied, pointing out that some simply may not like the Tesla CEO. As per Hoffman, their beef lies in his "having made OpenAI successful with his departure", after Musk left OpenAI's board. "Because he left saying, you know, 'You're all a bunch of jacka**** and you'll fail,' and I helped them succeed."
Epstein was found dead in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He pleaded guilty and was convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008.
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